Cryptophagidae (Leschen, 1996)

Leschen, Richard A. B. & Bowestead, Stanley, 2001, Synonymical Notes For Corylophidae And Cryptophagidae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea), The Coleopterists Bulletin 55 (3), pp. 312-316 : 314-315

Cryptophagidae

Circumtropical Atomariinae : Cryptafricini

Anitamaria Leschen, 1996: 625 . Type species: Anitamaria thayerorum Leschen, 1996 (original designation).

Scytomaria Lyubarsky, 1998a: 2 . Type species: Scytomaria himalaica Lyubarsky, 1998 (original designation). New synonymy.

Notes. Type specimens of Scytomaria himalaica are very similar to those that Leschen (1996) examined for his generic description of Anitamaria , which included an undescribed species similar to S. himalaica also from Nepal (see appendix in Leschen 1996, deposited in MNHG). The synonymy results in the new combination Anitamaria himalaica (Lyubarsky) .

The phylogenetic classification of Leschen (1996) was amended subsequently by Lyubarsky (1998b) to include several new family­group taxa. Critical assessment of all of the steps of Lyubarsky’s (1998b) analysis was not possible, though Leschen’s (1996) data matrix was modified (10% of the original characters were changed) and four new characters and two additional taxa ( Scytomaria and Hypophagus Lyubarsky ) were added. Remarkably, the relationships among the higher taxa in the one tree presented by Lyubarsky (1998b) were not significantly different from those presented by Leschen (1996) with the exception of Atomariinae . Lyubarsky (1998 b) splits the tribe Cryptafricini Leschen into three separate tribes: Cryptafricini , Microphagini Lyubarsky and Scytomariini Lyubarsky. Surprisingly, Cryptafricini was found to be paraphyletic because this tribe was strongly supported by 12 characters in the reference tree (and other trees) discussed by Leschen (1996). Possibly, the paraphyly of Cryptafricini is the result of wrongly duplicating Anitamaria and Scytomaria in the revised data matrix. A more detailed evaluation of Ljubarsky’s (1998 b) methods is beyond the scope of this paper though his analytical work on Cryptophagidae has been criticised in the Russian literature (Kirejtshuk and Kryzhanovskij 1998).

Lyubarsky (1998b) increased the number of higher taxa contained in the two subfamilies of Cryptophagidae from six tribes to four supertribes, nine tribes, and seven subtribes. Included are new family­group names for south temperate Cryptosomatulini, a group for which specimens were not examined by Lyubarsky (1998 b) and is poorly known anyway ( Leschen 1996). The proliferation of family­group names seems unwarranted especially when critical specimens have not been examined.

Material Examined ( SMNS). 3, Nepal, Myagdi Distr. 1995, Myagdi Khola N. Dobang, 2,800­3,100 m, 22.­24. V. Martens & Schawaller; Paratypus, Scytomaria himalaica n. sp. Lyubarsky .